Many conventional wind turbine designs already exist for producing electricity. Most commonly, such designs involve a single large propeller mounted at the top end of a vertical mast. Air flow across the propeller causes the propeller to turn, which in turn rotates a generator to produce electricity.
Such conventional wind turbines suffer numerous disadvantages. First, they involve large propellers that must are mounted a considerable distance above the ground. Thus, they require a tall and sturdy mast to which the propeller is mounted. A second disadvantage of large rotating propeller blade systems is that they tend to kill a large number of birds. A third disadvantage of such designs is that the generator is typically positioned at the center of the rotating blades. Thus, the generator is mounted at the top of the mast along with the propeller. This requires the mast to be sufficiently strong to support both the propeller and the generator. As a result, it is difficult to access the turbine for repairs and servicing. A fourth disadvantage of conventional propellers is that the blades rotate in a direction perpendicular to the wind direction. As a result, propeller blade velocity through the air increases with the distance from the center of rotation of the propeller. This unfortunately requires a variable and complex blade section geometry.